I retaught my series on the Marks of a Healthy Student Ministry almost a year ago. The introduction is here and without further ado the actual marks finally begin. (Sheesh! Who is the slacker writing this blog anyway?)
A healthy student ministry has people who are part of the local church.
The Old and New Testaments are completely silent about Student Ministries. There are no verses that describe ministry focused on young people. Based on this alone we might conclude that student ministry is at best a-biblical, that is, it isn’t found in the Bible. But though no verses support or provide instruction for this particular ministry, there are also no scriptures that condemn or prohibit it. Apparently student ministries is not anti-biblical either. So should there be such a thing as student ministry, and if so, where does it belong?
The New Testament does have much to say about the church and her role. Of course a church is a body of believers that gather together in a local place for corporate worship, mutual edification, and instruction for observing everything Christ commanded. In particular, Paul defines the work of church leaders in Ephesians 4:11-16 as strengthening and equipping believers to do the work of the ministry.
This responsibility of the church is to equip every believer. No national, cultural, gender or age restrictions exist, providing a rationale for focused shepherding and discipling of students. So in light of Ephesians 4:11-16, student ministry exists to strengthen and equip students to do the work of the ministry. Done properly, student ministry is just a focus on the few to reach the many within the context of a local church.
Churches typically have other ministries aimed at specific groups of people, be that children’s’ ministry, women’s’ ministry, etc. These particular ministries are not essential for equipping the saints but they can help to target “each part of the body” (Ephesians 4:16) and “every man” (Colossians 1:28). Colossians 1:28 was not actually written for youth ministry, it is Paul’s objective for the entire church. Presenting “every man” complete in Christ is a huge task and student ministry exists to reach the “every man” among the Junior High and High School students as God enables salvation and sanctification. But it is only under the umbrella of the entire church that student ministry makes sense.
Though I’m certain there are more, here are four brief sub-points important for being part of a local church.
- Following Christ. As part of a local church students need to follow Christ. On one hand this is so basic, yet on the other hand we never want to take it for granted. As part of the Body we must follow the Head. Anything we do apart from following the Head misses the point of being a part of the whole.
- Submitting to the elders. Elders are given by God to oversee the local body. Students are responsible to submit to the direction and priorities the elders set like the rest of the body. Elders are given to guide and protect, so wandering from their oversight is inappropriate and dangerous.
- Pursuing the same goals as the whole body. A philosophy of student ministry should not contradict or compete with that of the overall ministry. Though some practical differences may exist, there should be no disconnect between what happens in big church and “little church.” The goals and practices of student ministry should be consistent with every other ministry.
- Serving others outside of student ministries. Whether helping lead in children’s’ Sunday School or service projects for families in need, students are a necessary part of the body that must work properly the makes the body grow.
In addition, because student ministry is only healthy as it is part of a local body, student participation in “big church” worship is important as well. The youth meeting does not and cannot replace the entire congregation’s worship services. Anytime the church is gathering that includes the students. Pastors typically have application in mind for younger as well as older church members. A healthy student ministry will have people who are part of big church as well as student ministry.
And though it should be obvious this also means that healthy student ministries are not isolated away from the older who have wisdom to give and the younger who watch our example. All of the para-church ministries that attempt to make disciples in an isolated context away from the church are missing out on the blessings and benefits of being part of a local body.
Being part of a local church is #1 on the list for a reason. Too many youth pastors and ministries try to do their own thing and try to be so different from what’s happening in the rest of the church that inconsistency and ineffectiveness abound. Student ministry is not done until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, grown up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. In order to do this, students must be connected to the rest of the body. Though churches don’t need student ministries to be a healthy churches, healthy and proper student ministries must be part of a local churches.
The Conversation {1 responses}
Short Version: Amen, that’s a really good article.
Slightly Longer Version: This also goes somewhat nicely alongside part of the “Myth of Adolesence” series. I’ve found that most of the time the reasoning behind making a strong division between the Local Body and Student Ministries is that the younger audience either wouldn’t “get” the message in the main service, or would be bored, or just doesn’t want to hang with a bunch of old people, or that it’s too structured for the younger generation to handle (they need [Wallace]FREEDOM![/Wallace]).
The second time that we went to my grand-in-laws’ church, we got exposed to a sermon on this subject (the first time was, I kid you not, an interpretive dance of Easter… but it was with pre-teen kids, so it was cute). It was a visiting missionary pastor who tried to tell us from Acts 20:7-10 that we needed to separate the children off from the rest of the body and change our message to suit their needs or they would get bored (I guess to combat the recent wave of children falling out of windows that has been sweeping the nation).
I was utterly stunned by the sickening nature of the sermon, especially since, had he bothered to read to verse 11, he would have had to change his entire message. Interestingly enough, in response to Eutychus’s accident, Paul does not say “Oh man, people are falling out of windows? Obviously, to keep from having to raise more of you from the dead, I think we should retire for the night. Next time, I’ll dress up like a clown so the kids won’t get too tired.” He just heals him up, and gets right back to doing exactly what he had been doing before.
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